The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) was launched in 2018 and will approach within four million miles (6.5 million kilometres) from the centre of the Sun during its mission. It has already become the closest-ever artificial object to the Sun.
A report from the University of California Berkeley has said the probe detected streams of high-energy particles that match the “supergranulation flows within coronal holes”, which suggests that these are the regions where the so-called “fast” solar winds originate.
Solar winds are streams of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun that can disrupt communications, navigation systems, satellites and even cause power outages.
Fast solar winds typically originate from the coronal holes usually at the Sun’s poles during its quiet periods, so they generally do not hit Earth. When the Sun becomes active every 11 years as its magnetic field flips, these holes appear all over the surface, generating bursts...